Eighty-one out of the 89 cases pertaining to the communal violence in Haryana’s Nuh in July 2023 and August 2023 lacked any independent or corroborating evidence for arrests, according to court orders, a report by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights said on Monday.

Violence broke out between the Hindu and Muslim communities during the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra on July 31, 2023, leading to the death of two home guards and injuries to at least 15 others, including several police personnel.

The clash sparked in Nuh soon spread to other areas of Haryana. The same night, a mob had attacked a mosque in Gurugram and killed its naib imam. A naib imam is the deputy to the imam of the mosque.

At least six persons were killed and several others injured in the immediate aftermath of the violence.

The police filed 60 first information reports pertaining to the violence across seven police stations, in which 441 arrests were made till June.

Between August 2023 and June 2024, a team of right group People’s Union for Democratic Rights conducted four fact-finding visits to Nuh town and its adjoining villages to assess the aftermath of the violence.

The team spoke to several groups, including those released on bail and families of those who remain behind bars. The team revisited demolition sites and the cybercrime cell police station that was attacked by miscreants.

Three days after the violence, authorities had bulldozed several houses and shops, mostly owned by Muslims, in the district for allegedly encroaching on government land. Homes and shops of Muslim migrants were burnt and they were threatened with violence unless they left.

The administration had claimed that the demolition drive was targeted at “illegal encroachments” in several villages and towns of the Muslim-majority district.

Also read: Collective punishment? Demolitions in Haryana’s Nuh spanned at least 50 kilometres

The rights group found that in at least 26 cases, there was no evidence against the accused person except his own disclosure statement to the police in another case, or the disclosure statement of a co-accused. However, in a trial court, these statements are inadmissible without recovery of incriminating material.

“Without corroborating material, the police suffers from a lack of credibility, particularly given the widespread custodial violence that arrested persons reported to [the People’s Union for Democratic Rights],” the report said.

The report also cited the court’s observation in one of the cases that it was a matter of concern how “no one has recognised or identified” the accused despite him being a “permanent resident of area where said incidents took place…”

An accused person with a 75% orthopaedic disability was also implicated in 17 cases, the report noted. While granting bail to the man, the court had said that it was “humanly not possible” to be involved in 17 first information reports “of like nature of the same day of incident”.

The rights group also alleged that the Crime Investigation Agency of the Haryana Police had resorted to physical torture in the name of interrogation.

The police officials singled out several young men for the “roller treatment”, a third-degree torture form using an iron roller weighing around 80 kilograms, often filled with cement to make it heavier.

The roller treatment begins with forced nudity. Lawyers reported seeing arrested men sitting naked in several police station lock-ups, the rights group said. “Two-three officers then jointly roll the heavy roller on their thighs and genitals for several minutes at a stretch, which causes excruciating pain,” the report alleged.

One of the arrested persons told the People’s Union for Democratic Rights that he was subjected to the roller treatment “seven times on one day, till he felt like the veins in his thighs had been destroyed and fainted from the pain, and then again three times the next day”.

The roller treatment leaves no visible marks on the victims, which means that medical examinations do not show how the victim was tortured in custody, the report said.

“During these sessions, the victims, while being subjected to harrowing forms of pain and humiliation, were forced to identify photographs, admit to the allegations made against them by the police, or sign on blank sheets or arrest memos showing a false date and time of arrest,” the report said.

The People’s Union for Democratic Rights demanded an independent inquiry into police excesses committed in the aftermath of the violence. It also sought departmental action against erring police officers and compensation for the survivors.

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